Matthew Broderick just broke his collarbone while riding a horse. This makes Broderick the fourth or fifth person I have heard of in recent months who was injured while riding a horse. This got me to thinking: how dangerous is horseback riding, especially as compared to, say, riding a motorcycle?
A quick Google search turns up this 1990 CDC report, which makes it pretty clear: “Each year in the United States, an estimated 30 million persons ride horses. The rate of serious injury per number of riding hours is estimated to be higher for horseback riders than for motorcyclists and automobile racers.” (Here’s the citation for the injury rates: Firth JL. Equestrian injuries. In: Schneider RC, Kennedy JC, Plant ML, eds. Sports injuries: mechanism, prevention, and treatment. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1985:431-9.)
Interestingly, the people who get hurt riding horses are often under the influence of alcohol, just like the people who get hurt driving motor vehicles.
So why don’t we hear about all these horseback-riding injuries and fatalities? I have a few guesses:
1. A lot of horse accidents occur on private property, and involve just one person.
2. Such accidents probably tend to not generate police reports, as a motorcycle or drag-racing accident inevitably would.
3. The kind of people who might typically call attention to unsafe activities like horses more than they like motorcycles.
4. A big motorcycle accident is more likely to make the evening news than a horse-riding accident — unless, or course, the victim of the horse-riding accident is a Matthew Broderick or a Christopher Reeve.
I may be wrong on this, but I don’t recall that Reeve’s tragic accident was taken as a call to ban or regulate horseback riding — whereas when Ben Roethlisberger, e.g., was recently injured while riding his motorcycle without a helmet, all the discussion was about the foolishness of his act.
Even more surprising than the news that Broderick broke his collarbone is the fact that he broke it in Ireland — where, according to the U.P.I. article linked above, he owns a vacation home. I would have thought after the terrible accident Broderick had many years ago, in which he killed a mother and daughter in a car crash, Ireland is the last place where he’d own a vacation home.
12 Comments
I would have thought after the terrible accident Broderick had many years ago, in which he killed a mother and daughter in a car crash.
You would have thought what?
— Jeremy.liberiusJust because the RATE of serious injuries per riding hour is higher for horses than motorcycles doesn’t mean the AMOUNT of serious injuries is higher. I suspect that when you multiply the rate by the number of typical riding hours on horseback or motorcycle, the number of actual incidents is FAR higher for motorcycles than horseback riding. Thus, if the number of actual motorcycle incidents is 100,000/year, and the number of horseback riding incidents is 100/year, it would be logical that the former is reported on more than the latter, notwithstanding the fact that the latter may have a higher rate per hours ridden.
— RnznsmnMalcolm Baldrige, the Reagan administration’s Commerce Secretary and namesake for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, died of injuries sustained in a rodeo event. Still, if I’ve got to go back 19 years to think of another well-known injury while riding horses, then that tends to prove your point.
— MichaelThanks for alerting us to this very important breaking news.
http://debfrisch.com/archives/2006/08/breaking_ouch_n_1.html
— south(west)pawRegarding your interesting question of why he continues to go back to the country where he had the tragic accident, me suspects his wife picked out the vacation spot. “Oh honey, I love Ireland so much…it won’t bother you, will it?”
— GarryI would be interested in knowing how “serious injury” is being defined since about 10% of horseback riding related injuries require hospitalization while about 17% of motorcycle injuries require hospitalization (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00031470.htm). It’s difficult to compare the studies because there is no side by side analysis of the horse and motorcycle data.
— lauraBroderick’s car crash was in Northern Ireland while his vacation house is in the Republic of Ireland. Different countries.
— prosa> I may be wrong on this, but I don’t recall
> that Reeve’s tragic accident was taken as a
> call to ban or regulate horseback
> riding—whereas when Ben Roethlisberger,
> e.g., was recently injured while riding
> his motorcycle without a helmet, all
> the discussion was about the foolishness
> of his act.
1) Had Reeve cracked his head open rather than his neck, and had he not been wearing “proper attire” then it no doubt would have been a case of “What kind of example are you setting?”
2) Most (using a very inexact measurement, admittedly) people ride horses on grass/dirt at speeds of, what, 2 mph? Most people ride motorcycles on something like concrete at 50-70mph surrounded by other people in other vehicles in close proximity at high speed. Comparing the danger would involve not just the injury but the risk of death.
3) A helmet is such a basic piece of equipment, and not wearing it was such an obvious act of “I won’t act responsibly and you can’t make me!” after he was told repeatedly by many who care for him that he was being stupidly reckless… to then go and have a wreck… well, hell, the NYTimes should have offered a free full page ad saying “I TOLD YOU SO” with the list of names underneath
4) If Reeve had a history of “recklessness” on a horse and then had an accident, sentiment might be greatly swayed.
5) Someone I know who knows a lot about horses blames whoever put Reeve on what she considered a “very undersized horse” for someone of his size. It’s not clear why he was on such a horse, whether it was his choice or not.
So you’re really comparing a “freak accident” with a “Well Duh” eventuality that everyone saw coming.
— luomatI read some time back that the sport that generated the highest number of fatal accidents (at least in Canada) was - fishing.
This seemingly absurd situation becomes crystal clear when you factor in alcohol.
Guy goes fishing with a case of beer, neglects his life jacket, falls in the water…
— WalrusHorses are large, strong animals, and a fall from a horse is a fall from a great hight, and possibly a great speed. All of the above makes them inherently dangerous. Many people have a strong love for them, and I have seen trajedy come from this love in the case of extremely gifted riders.
— jmessickBroderick has a vacation home in an area where he was taken on vacations as a child. SJP is from Ohio, and I doubt her family ever visited there.
— eileen pylesluomat:
-Equestrians when galloping and jumping travel at speeds of up to 35-40mph when racing. Eventers and other jumpers probably go at around 20-25 on course sometimes cruising up to 30mph on the big event courses between fences when time is running short.
Not 2 mph.!?
Bottom line is both sports are very dangerous and to neglect wearing a helmet reflects not only foolishness and stupidity but inexperience as well. There’s nothing cool about the wind blowing through your brains. My skull was saved in a high speed horse fall by a good jockey helmet. I suffered only a minor concussion in what the paramedics (who witnessed the crash at a show )claimed could have been fatal based on speed and height.
— beckette